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“If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.” Thomas Jefferson

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Dwelling in the Past

I have to admit I have a deep dark secret. My secret is that sometimes I am human and bitterness towards events of the past sometimes rears its ugly head. I guess I should explain. My Dad passed away in 1995. After his death my sister and I discovered that my stepmother had forged my Dad's signature on beneficiary change paperwork for his life insurance and his pension account. Apparently that is common and accepted practice so she got everything but the funeral bill which she kindly left to me. But that is not where the bitterness comes in believe it or not. My Dad was to inherit my grandfather's farm, or what was left of it. My uncle had forged my grandfather's signature on some loan paperwork mortgaging 500 acres to finance his construction business. He didn't pay the loan and the bank that allowed this called my grandfather and gave him 30 days to come up with a half million dollars to save the land. The land was foreclosed on. Since my Dad was the one paying the taxes to keep the farm and since my uncle had stolen more than half of it my grandfather decided that my Dad should get what was left, 100 acres the house and the barns. In the event that my Dad died before my grandfather (which he did) then my sister and I were to inherit the farm. When Dad died I moved to the farm and paid my grandparents bills and physically took care of them until my grandfather died. My grandmother was a hateful old woman and I bore a lot of abuse at her hand during those two years. My uncle was out of the picture, until my grandfather died. Then I found out that while my grandfather was suffering from Alzheimers my grandmother and a crooked attorney had him sign a new will leaving everything left to my uncle. When grandaddy died my uncle magically showed up to claim what was his and I was thrown off the farm and told never to come back. I was not even allowed to collect my belongings that I had brought with me. Things such as my Bible that my other grandmother had given me on the day of my birth (yes it has my name and hers in it) and my wedding gifts that I was using to cook their meals. Many other things as well. Basically I was allowed my clothes and my toiletries. The kicker is that my uncle is not even my grandfather's legitimate child. I don't know if Grandaddy ever knew that or not, but several of us in the family know. You can't not know as he looks just like his biological father and his other sons. He looks like nobody in our family...not even a remote resemblance. So I just found out that my uncle sold the farm to a cousin for a whole lot of money. At least it is in the family you say. The place looks awful, the barns are falling down or have already. The house isn't far behind them and all the equipment is gone. I could have used many of those tools, some of which were mine (I bought)to begin with. That land has been in my grandfather's family for 200 years. It was the last bit of land that we held before the Civil War. I have ancestors buried on that land. My great grandfather built that house with his bare hands for his new bride (the plantation house had fallen down). He built all those barns and planted every single one of the 40 pecan trees. He worked it as a dairy and then my grandaddy moved from the dairy to beef cows. My grandfather planted all the muscadine vines and worked that land. He sacrificed so much and so did my Dad to keep that land for us grandchildren and our children. So many times both of them could have sold it and lived very well, but they didn't because like my Grandfather told me when I was young...we were connected to that land and it flowed through our veins like blood. That land allowed my family to survive and thrive when others were starving during the depression. During that time it also fed a lot of people outside the family many times for nothing but a thank you in return. That farm was always home. It's where I learned so many of life's lessons and where I learned so much about the things that I do now. I always wanted to farm and my grandfather knew that I would be the only one who would. Anyway, now finding out that my grandmother's nephew (not a blood descendant of my grandfather) now owns that land and all it was to my uncle was quick money to be had makes my blood boil. All the bitterness and hate that I have worked so hard to put aside just comes right back to the surface. Yes, I said hate and I don't use that word lightly. But I hate my uncle and I hate my grandmother for the lying manipulating cheating thieving hateful woman that she was. No piece of land has ever meant so much to me as that one. I guess because of the history, and I am directly tied to that history. My grandfather would be heartbroken and so would my Dad. It was always his dream to retire back home on the farm and have a herd of Herefords that he could watch graze in the pasture while he drank his coffee on the porch. He never got to do that. My granddaddy wanted his descendants to love that land and work it as had been done for generations and now it sits there falling apart. So here I sit dwelling in the past, a place I don't need to be because what is done is done. I can't change it. I am not the only one who has lost the family farm, there are a million stories just like mine. I do try to let the bitterness and hate go, but right now knowing that it is truly gone and no longer in the family I feel as if I have lost it all over again. The grief is unbelievable. But, I must put on my big girl boots and put the past where it belongs and let it go. I will although it is never gone for good. For the past 14 years it rears its ugly head every now and then. And then I bury it again. I don't know if I will ever truly be able to let it all go...that land is part of me, it runs through my veins like blood....it is my blood. Blessings, Kat

Saturday, January 26, 2013

The End of Morningland Dairy

Well, it is finished and of course the government won. Awhile back I wrote a post about Morningland Dairy and the fact that their cheese was confiscated on the food co-op raid in California. After sitting in a warehouse, unrefrigerated for over a month, two samples tested positive for Staph and Listeria. Of course these samples were also tested in a government funded lab. However, when Morningland Dairy itself was tested with a fine tooth comb the government came up with no contamination...not in the facility, not in the cracks of the facility, not in the cheese, no where. That should have been the end of it but it wasn't. To make a long story short Morningland Dairy has been destroyed and will never make cheese again (court order). For 2 1/2 years the Dixons fought the good fight and yesterday it was finished as all the cheese that was under seizure was finally destroyed by the feds and the plug on the cooler was pulled. The cows are gone, the equipment is gone, the business is gone. This didn't just affect the Dixons, as there were several families that depended on Morningland for their livelihood as well. This is a scary time for all of us small producers because big AG and big government are determined to see us destroyed. How ironic that yesterday a perfectly clean facility selling a high quality clean product was put to rest while I read a news article on the FDA's acceptable amounts of rat excrement in grain products and acceptable levels of mercury and arsenic in grocery store foods. As you can see it clearly wasn't about food safety, it was about getting rid of the competition and getting rid of the right to choose. When you have no choice but to eat the crap (literally) that they tell you to eat they have won. You can read the whole story here. Mark my words when I say that this does not bode well for any of us that produce our own food or food for others to eat. It's a sad day indeed. Kat

Friday, January 25, 2013

What We Are Up To

We have been busy working on the garden lately. I am sure I have said it before, but we are greatly expanding the garden. We don't need more space to grow more for us as we grow plenty to use immediately and put up for future use. However, one of our big goals this year is to grow more for livestock feed. Feed costs are rising and the drought plaguing most of the country has not showed any sign of letting up. In fact, it just seems to be getting worse. That means even higher grain costs as farmers simply can't grow grain. I have already culled my goat herd and can't afford to cull the rabbit herd, in fact I need to expand that. So what is a smallholder to do? Well, the answer is simply grow as much as you can yourself. Now, it really isn't practical for many smallholder's including myself to try and grow all of their current grain needs. It simply would be too time consuming to do it by hand and too costly to try and find equipment that would even fit on my property let alone find the pasture space to give up to that much production. So again what to do? Well, take a look at what some of the old timers did who were in the same situation. In the days before heavy equipment which led to small grain fields instead of several hundred acres farmers grew root crops to supplement their small grain fields. Things like turnips, beets, sweet potatoes were very often grown more for livestock fodder than human food. These things could be easily stored during the winter to supplement grain. Peas were readily grown for a protein source and often dried on the vine. Vine and all were then fed during the winter to the family milk cow. Another thing that some did was to plant and grow a grain field and then let the stock harvest it themselves. Usually they turned the stock out onto fields that were not quite mature in that the plants were still green and while the grain had formed was nowhere near ready to harvest. The time that the animals were on the fields allowed the farmers to stock up grain rations that would be fed later when the fields were fallow. This meant that the farmer could grow more grain than he was capable of harvesting and still get the benefits of large grain production. So what are we planning here on our little 10 acres? Well, we are planning lots of root crops...turnips, sweet potatoes, and beets in abundance. Everywhere we can stick them. Then we are planning a small grain patch to be rotated throughout the year. Then we are planning on turning the pigs on the front pasture for a few months until it is time to plant quinoa (high in protein) and then move the pigs and plant the grain which will be harvested. We have a lot of concrete space around the pond which is in the center of the garden and we are building beds on top of this concrete to grow crops that would otherwise take up ground space. This will increase our gardening square footage tremendously. We will also be planting loads of field peas to be our protein source. Field peas don't take up much space and a whole lot of them can be grown in a small area. Many varieties produce several crops during the growing season and unlike beans can be fed straight off the vine or simply dried. Once the harvest is done then the whole plant can be pulled up and fed to the livestock. It is a lot of hard work, but we have to watch our costs and even if we can only substitute one store bought grain meal a day for the critters that still cuts our needs in half. So, I guess I had better get to work. Blessings, Kat

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

How We Feed our Dogs

We have large dogs and good quality (not grocery store) dog food is not cheap. They have both done well on a good quality kibble diet, but when you homestead you are always looking for ways to keep costs down. So if the livestock feeds us, then it should be reasonable that it feeds the dogs as well. So we gradually changed the dogs over to a prey model diet. No this is not the BARF diet in which you grind, chop and cook endlessly to keep the dogs fed. This is a simple, takes a few minutes a day, prey model diet. Dogs are carnivores, not omnivores. There is a ton of information on the web about a prey diet for dogs and more about prey vs. BARF so I am not going to even try to repeat it here. Needless to say we feed a prey model diet that sometimes has some extras thrown in here and there. One of the things that I have found is to look for balance in the diet over the course of a week. Whenever we butcher anything all useable parts are either fed right then or frozen for later use. The dogs get organ meats at least once a week (source of vitamin A), fish once a week (a can of sardines will do or a can of mackerel or salmon, fresh is better if possible), and the rest of the time the majority of their food is butcher trimmings (all that gristle, fat and silverskin), parts that we don't typically eat (pig feet, snouts, ears, animal brains), rabbit, chicken and whatever else we have extra. Butchering day around here is a big affair with both the cats and the dogs. The dogs clean up the heads and guts (we save large animal organs for later except kidneys which the cats get)and the cats get all the small animal organs along with their own gut pile. I know sounds gross. We have gone this way for several reasons. One we have always supplemented butchering scraps and bones as more of a treat than anything else. Then I started learning about the link between processed pets foods and the high rate of cancer in pets. Then we lost Cujo our Rhodesian to a very aggressive cancer. Don't know if there was a true connection or not in his instance, but he was 12 and had eaten kibble all his life. Three is that Valentine has terrible skin allergies and it doesn't seem to matter what kind or how high a quality kibble she is on, so we are hoping that totally raw will help with that. We have been completely raw for 3 months now and the dogs are doing well. It has certainly helped our pocket book. No huge change in Valentine's skin allergies just yet, but we are hoping as she has grown some of her hair back. Dakota is a healthy weight and very active, Valentine has lost some weight (she was overweight) and has never been very active plus she is 10. I think it just makes sense that if we produce our food then we should be able to produce for the dogs as well. As for the cats, they mostly hunt and are supplemented with meat scraps, fish heads, fish, and kitchen scraps. They are fat, happy and healthy. Don't be afraid to go raw if that is something you think you can do. I know neither of them has bad breath anymore and neither of them has terrible gas anymore and both of them have lovely shiny white teeth. I will say though that giving them bones with meat and grisle on them is messy so they get those outside. The other downside is picking up all the uneaten portions of bones. The one caution is to make sure that all the bones are raw, not cooked. Happy Tails! Kathryn

Monday, January 14, 2013

What More are We Supposed to Do?

So they are taking more from our paychecks now. Insurance is up and covers less. Those that receive federal checks at least get a cost of living increase, but we haven't had one of those in 4-5 years. My husband works a lot of overtime and boy oh boy when you do they hit you hard with taxes, but many times the overtime allows him to keep his original 40 hour paycheck. So we already support our family on a small budget, we are tight. We grow a huge garden, put up food from the garden, raise livestock with food from the garden and feed us and the dogs with the livestock raised on the food from the garden. We purchase very little outside the farm. We patch and repair anything and everything we can to make do. And we very often do without. We downsized our goat herd and will be doing so again this year. So what more are we supposed to do to make ends meet? Meanwhile those on government entitlement checks drive new cars, get 60.00 hair dos and 60.00 nail jobs. I can't afford a 20.00 hair cut. My car sits in the driveway most days because I can't afford to drive it. We have broken our backs to cut wood to have heat this winter and they get subsidy checks to buy propane with. Really, this is ridiculous. How much more are we to live at a subsistence level while those that do nothing live high on the hog? Don't get me wrong, I like our lifestyle but just once I would like to buy myself a new dress or tell my kids that yes we can go to the movie today or to visit friends today. So many times I have to say no because we are stretching what little we have from the paycheck and daddy needs gas to get to work. I just hope all those living off my dollar and your dollar never come down my driveway looking for something because as far as I am concerned they have gotten all they are going to get from me. I know that may sound un-Christian of me, but if a man/woman doesn't work then they don't eat. And frankly, I have never had much tolerance of leaches. I still don't know what more we can do to cut back or cut out. I guess I will figure it out somehow. Lord help us, because I don't know how much more my body can take. Blessings from the farm, Kat

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Goat Medicine Chest

Since my post yesterday about the Sugar's small bout with Ketosis and my suggestions of having a well stocked medicine chest I thought I would post about what I keep on hand and what I will be adding soon. So here is the list and hopefully it will post as a list this time. Goat Medicine Chest: Cydectin-Wormer typically for cattle and used off label for goats. Ivermectin paste-Another wormer, this is the horse paste Probios- probiotic gel given anytime there is disruption in rumen activity Selenium/Vit. E gel- we are severely deficient in selenium in our soil and deficiency can lead to birth defects and breeding issues CMPK paste- Calcium/Magnesium/Phosphorus/Potassium prevention of hypocalcemia in newly freshened does and heavily pregnant does. Also a good mineral boost if other issues arise. B-complex- good boost at kidding time for both kids and does, stimulates appetite for animals that are not eating, good for treating lethargy. Standard go to for most any health issue Corid- coccidiosis prevention in kids. I typically don't like to use "preventive" type medications but I have had way to many issues with coccidiosis in kids to not use this for each and every kid born here. Albon-Treatment of coccidiosis should one arise after Corid prevention Red Cell-animals suffering from heavy worm load lose a lot of blood, this is a good boost nutritionally for that case and also after kidding Copper boluses-This is a much unless you live in a high copper area, we don't and copper deficiency is prevalent here and causes all sorts of problems to general unthriftiness, breeding issues, low milk production etc. Penicillin G procaine- In case injuries and infection arise, also good to have on hand for respiratory infections. Since we use so few antibiotics here and our herd is closed this has always worked when we have used it. For many it won't work and a stronger antibiotic is needed. Syringes and needles- You will use more than you think you will so have a wide variety and a good amount. Do NOT re-use needles you wouldn't believe how the needle bends after one injection. Nitrofurazone gel- for wounds Vet wraps- in case of serious injuries lubricant jelly- in case I need to go in for a stuck kid 7% iodine- navels at birth, general disinfectant Gloves-have never used them but they are there in case I need to take care of something infectious Blood stop powder- to help stem bleeding if need be, use it more on the dogs than the goats but it is good stuff. Kaopectate- to help control diarrhea that has gone on too long Pedialyte- easy to use drench electrolyte solution Sterile Saline- to replenish a dehydrated animal I think that is about it for goats and of course some of these things can be used across the board for many of the livestock. One thing that I am adding to my box this year is Replamin Plus gel. Several breeders have been having great results with this for replacing and maintaining copper levels, especially those that have high iron levels which inhibits copper absorption. Blessings, Kat

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Pregnancy Toxemia/Ketosis in Pregnant Does

Well, there is always something new when it comes to goats. This winter we have backed off the grain because our girls were a bit on the pudgy side and we felt that this was one of the reasons we had such a low production rate last year. So, we decreased the amount of grain that everyone was getting. However, Sugar had not long been out of milk and she is one of those girl's that puts everything she has into milk production. She wasn't thin but it was obvious that she had been in production and was not carrying any excess weight. So now here she is 2 months from delivery and she usually kids out with triplets. The other morning I was out feeding and Sugar didn't come over to the feed trough with the other girls, nor was she interested in the hay when I put it out. She was standing in the corner all hunched up and I knew she didn't feel good. So, I immediately bolused her with baking soda (my first go to thing when a goat is off). I also notice a really strange smell when I was bolusing her. An almost sickeningly sweet smell. One of the tell tale signs of ketosis. Ketosis is when a doe is not getting enough calories to support her pregnancy and so her body starts to burn excess fat to meet her and the kids needs. This metabolism of fat produces that sweet smell in the doe's breathe. Sugar is at the low end of the pecking order and more than likely wasn't getting her fair share of the grain in the mornings. So as a result she wasn't getting enough calories. Ketosis is a serious condition and if left to go on will result in the death of the doe. So here is how I treat it and it works. I made up a solution of water, pedialyte, molasses and karo syrup. About a cup of water, 1/2 a cup of pedialyte and 3 tablespoons each of molasses and karo syrup. Then drench the doe with 30ccs every 2 hours. Also give a dose of CMPK, B-complex, and probios. I gave a small dose of Red cell just for kicks, but it isn't really necessary for treatment. It is a good thing to have a stock of common medical supplies on hand so that you can catch medical emergencies quickly. If I had to go to town for anything then her treatment would have been delayed at least an hour and a half. Goats can go down quickly and by the time they are showing symptoms of being sick they have already been sick for several days. By that afternoon Sugar was doing just fine and eating like a horse. She now gets separated into one of the kidding stalls so that she gets her grain and enough calories to grow those babies. She already has a considerable baby bump even though she isn't due for almost 2 months. Anyway, keep an eye on your girls and their nutrition needs as they advance in their pregnancies. We all want happy healthy mammas and babies! Blessings, Kat

Saturday, January 5, 2013

52 week Money Challenge

This is a good idea that someone passed on through the Homesteading Today Forums. It is called the 52 week money challenge. It looks like a great way to save money. So the idea is that starting with week one you save 1 dollar. Week 2, 2 dollars. One dollar for every week you are in of the year. Now, at the end of the year this could be pretty difficult for us to put back 40 or 50 so dollars a week. That is a good chunk of change. So what I am planning on doing is putting away more at the beginning so that maybe it isn't so hard at the end of the year. If you do the challenge exactly as planned then you should have over 1300.00 saved by the end of the year. It should be interesting to see how far we can get with this challenge. We are at least going to try. So are you up to the challenge? Blessings, Kat

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Happy New Year

Well another year gone by. It seems they come and go quicker and quicker as I age, which is a shame because I still have so much living to do. However, I have no regrets in my life. I have done most accomplished the most important goals in my life and done some of the things that I wanted to do. If I had a bucket list, which I don't because I am not there yet, it would be short. I have lived life as full as I possibly can. I have for the most part a happy life. Sometimes it has been a struggle and sometimes I just wanted to give up, but with the grace and glory of God I have always managed to land on my feet. I give praise and thanks to Him with all my heart for the life that He has blessed me with and I know that He will keep us and guide us in the years to come. My favorite poem is Footprints in the Sand. If you have never read it please do. When times are hard and I feel like I simply can't keep going then I think of that poem and remember that I am not alone and my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is at that moment carrying me through those trying times. It is that thought that gets me through to face the next of life's challenges. We will keep plugging along this year setting new goals to be met and living with the ones that we haven't been able to meet yet. It always happens that way. I am very excited about simplifying my life in that I have downsized so much stuff collected over the years. I still have a little ways to go on that, but I am very happy with the way things have gone so far. Most of life on the farm is routine now and not the challenge of hard back breaking work that it once was. There was a point in time where I always felt like I was playing catch up because I always did things without being fully prepared. Like bringing goats home before I really had the fence up well and embarking on a huge garden before I really had a handle on what my soil needed. However, it has all worked out in the end and I have learned so much along the way. 2012 was a good year and I expect 2013 to be a good year no matter the challenges or hardships that it brings. After 41, almost 42 years of living I finally understand that old saying, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger". It's true. As I reflect on myself and who I am I realize that I am a much stronger person than I was 20 years ago and that it is because I have lived through some rough times and survived them that I am who I am today. 20 years ago I thought the key to happiness was a high paying job and a big house to show for it. Faith, family and good friends are the true keys to happiness and I have all three. What a blessing to be able to say that. I hope 2013 brings you all many blessings and many chances to grow into the person that you truly are. Happy New Year from the farm, Kat